The Tree Huggers' 2004 adventure racing season began yesterday with FAR's Albion Hills Winter Race, a 40 km event featuring navigation, mountain biking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and tobogganing. We'd hoped for wintry temperatures, say -10C, to ensure good snow conditions, but it was a bit much when the mercury hit -24C during breakfast. We crossed our fingers that the race would not begin with mountain biking - the coldest sport for toes, fingers and faces.

We got to Albion Hills and learned that we would indeed be biking first. Oh boy. Bikes aren't designed to be operated in sub-zero temperatures and neither, really, are cyclists. A friend (who eventually won the race) had to warm his bike under the washroom hand dryer, since critical parts had frozen while it was on the roof rack. We stuck chemical toe warmers to the bottoms of our socks and hoped for the best.

This event attracted 50 teams of 3 people each - a huge number for a winter race. We were bussed to a road junction north of Hockley Valley Park. We were to run 600 meters to our bikes, then begin riding. Our team began the day with a snafu when we got separated at the start and ended up waiting on bikes when there were no teammates behind. Once we'd found each other, we were at the back of the pack as we began a hilly 4 km ride on snowy country roads. Next was an unopened road allowance almost 1.5 km long - an opportunity to push our bikes along a pretty, rolling forest trail through deep snow in a long line of racers. Not fun, but at least we didn't feel cold anymore. Another 9 km of biking on hilly roads lay between us and TA1 (the first Transition Area) near Airport Rd. Since I'd had food poisoning on Thursday, it seemed like a good day for Richard to tow me up some hills. The problem was, with heavy gloves, it was hard to grab the tow line, but the times when we were able to "dock", it worked pretty well.

Richard mentioned something about fixing his Camelbak mouthpiece, then there was a burst of confused fury as he realized that a liter of water had poured from his drinking reservoir into the front of his jacket, soaking his top layers and the outside of his tights. The irony was, because we had boiled the water in the morning, the water was uncomfortably hot even on this frigid day. The heat didn't last. We were so close to the TA that we decided to keep going, silently dealing with the fact that our race might be over. Richard travels light, so Ming and I were frantically trying to figure out how we could build a new outfit for him with the contents of our packs. However, it was SO cold that most of the liquid flash-froze on the front of Richard's fleece vest, leaving him with a rock-hard abdomen 5 cm thick. It was heavy - and quite funny, once we realized that he wasn't cold anymore and he simply had to spend the day carrying an extra kilogram of ice on his tummy, like a kangaroo's pouch.

We switched to snowshoes and angled across a field with fairly deep snow until we joined the Bruce Trail for some steep, forested hills and valleys before crossing Hwy 9, about 3 km from TA1. Entering Glen Haffy Conservation Area, we stayed on the Bruce Trail for a short while, then headed off to cross a creek valley to get to the next checkpoint (CP2), a picnic area about 2 km from Hwy 9. We saw a number of teams around CP2 but ended up breaking trail as we contoured along the top of a ridge, aiming to meet the Bruce Trail where it crossed Coolihan's Sideroad. The other teams mostly stuck to the park road, which was easier walking, but a longer route. After crossing Coolihan's, we hit a road allowance that ran straight to TA2/CP3 where the Bruce Trail joins the dead end of Innes Lake Rd. The distance from CP2 was about 3.75 km. Throughout the snowshoe section we ran about half the time, and tapped Richard's excess energy to tow Ming or me as needed to keep the team's speed as high as possible.

Although we'd been moving quickly by our standards, we were surprised to come over the hill and see over 100 bicycles waiting for their owners. The checkpoint staff enthusiastically said, "Hey, way to go guys - you're doing great!" That's what people always say at checkpoints, so we just smiled back and said "thanks". But they persisted in congratulating us, and we were astounded to hear that we were the 5th team to arrive out of 50. What??? There must be some mistake. The Tree Huggers are a fun team. We have never been the 5th team to arrive anywhere, nor do we try to be. As it sank in, we realized this would be a really good time to do an efficient transition and get the heck out of there. I got ready for biking while the guys sorted their gear, hindered by cold fingers and giddiness. They couldn't get the transition bag zipped shut. It finally dawned on them that the bag was too big because it had 2 bike helmets in the bottom. Richard and Ming both touched their heads at the same moment with the same astonished look on their faces, realizing that they were about to start biking without helmets - then we all burst into laughter, including the checkpoint staff. We headed out for a 5 km ride mostly on Finnerty Sideroad (where we live) - a ride that should have been easy, but wasn't. Richard's thumb froze and he had to deal with that; Ming's legs started cramping painfully, a condition that plagued him for the rest of the race. We limped along at moderate speed as one team passed us and another caught up.

We got to the CP at the Bruce Trail entrance to the Palgrave Conservation Area on Humber Station Rd., a short distance from our house. If racers arrived before 2:50 p.m., they could do an advanced navigation section in Palgrave on foot or by snowshoe. Otherwise, they would bike on to Albion Hills for the skiing leg. We made it in time for the advanced section, and were happy to leave our bikes behind - good riddance. We'd chosen not to bring snowshoes, so we were on foot for the next 6 km in 10-20 cm of snow. First we took the Bruce Trail most of the way across to Duffy's Lane, avoiding hills and capitalizing on the firmer snow. Then we went into the main part of Palgrave and navigated to the first CP, which was on a pine-covered hill that we couldn't remember visiting before. The volunteers told us we were the 5th team to arrive, so we'd passed the 2 teams who had caught us on the bike leg - woo hoo! The next CP was 1 km away in the old main parking lot. We were still 5th, and still in shock. We realized that we could name every team who must be in front of us, because the race had attracted some big names. Unfortunately, Ming was still in severe pain from cramps that moved around his legs, but was soldiering on amazingly well with occasional towing from Richard. We hustled back to Duffy's Lane, down to the rail trail and over to Patterson Sideroad where our skis awaited us.

The last section of skiing was shorter than we had hoped but, as it turned out, by the time we got there, Ming was gritting his teeth just to be able to move his legs at all. However, after somehow getting this close to the front of the pack, we would do whatever it took to get us all across the finish line, even if we had to walk carrying our skis and each other. We had about 5 km of skiing to get back to the chalet, all of it on groomed ski trails. In flat sections, Richard towed Ming with a ski pole, while they each used one arm to pole forward. He couldn't help on the hills and Ming dug deep to power up a couple of steep climbs. We arrived at the chalet, although we had actually hoped to come out on top of the tobogganing hill - oops. This left us with a steep climb carrying our skis, avoiding toboggans as they careened down the narrow hill, followed by an exhilarating descent across the finish line.

Our total time was 5:54. Our buddies from Team EAS/Hammer came first overall with an amazing time of 4:29. We ended up placing 3rd in the co-ed division and,we were 6th overall out of 50 teams! (See attached "after" photo.) The two co-ed teams ahead of us were led by experienced international adventure racers and course designers - Lawrence Foster and Pete Cameron - and we were incredibly honoured to be on the podium with them. We remain shocked and thrilled a day later. Our local knowledge certainly helped, but we also overcame a few major problems in this race, so we don't feel overly guilty. We don't think this is the beginning of a new trend for the Tree Huggers, but it sure is a confidence booster at the start of the season. Plus we had lots of fun too.